Japan report

Japan report

(I leave shortly for my next adventure, so it may be a while before I get to posting about Vietnam. I also hope I have proofed this well enough - I want to get it published before I leave).

I loved my time in Japan. I felt comfortable, I was able to improve on my language skills, I felt mostly competent. I had just enough planned that I could decide on a day-by-day what activities I would do.

Hajime castle

I started with one week on my own, making my way to Tokyo to meet up for the Textile workshop, then ten days at the workshop, followed by about six days with Ottawa daughter who joined me there.

As this is a sewing (and textile) blog, I will focus on those pursuits... with a few other stories!

While in Osaka I made a trip out to Hajime castle. I think many people go to Osaka castle, in town, but this is probably a more interesting destination. Glad I did it. Thanks to my JR pass it did not cost me anything! Thirty minutes on the Shinkansen (bullet train) and I was there. You see the castle from the train station. Very impressive, very well maintained. You can walk up the five stories. There is lots to learn about how society or government was structured... but just an introduction!  The information about the massive treks (200 plus people) to Tokyo to pay respects, with all the paraphernalia was interesting, for example!) There is a section which would have been the women's section. There was a lot of information on the two or three main residents (forgive me, I can't remember what rank they were - not emperor, but high ranking lords). One thing I found especially interesting was the recreation of some of their garments, based on paintings of these high ranking residents!

recreated garment, Hajime

  

recreated garment, Hajime

recreated garment, Hajime

 

recreated garment, Hajime

Japanese maple in Hajime garden

I took advantage of the combo ticket to visit the garden as well as the castle. After my long visit at the castle I wondered if I should just skip the garden. I was glad I did not skip it! Japanese gardens can be places of beauty. Very manicured, to be sure, but so thoughtfully done... well worth it!

fabric knives

I really thought about buying a Japanese knife. Sadly for me, by the time I found the store I was looking for, it was getting quite late, and I did not feel like making such a large commitment without careful thought. I was fascinated by these two items, though: fabric knives! Hard to imagine how they would be used without a modern, self-healing mat! 

Next stop, Kyoto. Kyoto was jam-packed with tourists. Can't complain, since I was also a tourist! Apparently it is a big thing in Kyoto for tourists to rent traditional garments (Kimono, etc), and spend the day dressed like that. I did not participate!

Hongan-ji

No wonder Kyoto was full of tourists - there is a lot to see! First stop, passed on my walk from the station to the hotel was the Hongan-ji temple. So grand, (I actually did not visit it until after I had checked in!). I met up with Karla, the young Ecuadorian woman I had sat beside on the flight, and then run into by chance in Osaka. On my way down this street I passed an interesting small display beside a steep staircase. The sign promised quality fabrics made in Japan. My interst piqued, I descended the stairs to find myself in what felt like someone's home, with a small selection of apparently 'good quality' fabrics.  The older woman who was there admitted that they were actually not made in Japan, but they were definitely NOT made in China! I did not see anything to strike my fancy, so left without making a purchase. 

hidden fabric store display

welcome to my ... fabric store?

While in Kyoto I also visited the Imperial Palace and the Golden Pavillion, both beautiful and peaceful - in spite of all the company! (The Golden Pavillion was especially busy!).

Imperial palace

Golden Pavillion

Back to textiles!

I am always interested in weaving, and so headed to the Ori-nasu kanOri-nasu kan. This is a small, traditional weaving centre, designed to revive and maintain the local weaving arts. I arrived on this quiet street at lunch time, and found the place, but it was closed for lunch. I wandered a bit further, and wandered into a kimono shop! (I think she was having lunch, too, but she graciously let me look around, and answerd my questions; it was pretty clear that I was not shopping for a kimono!). I did buy a silk remnant from her.

more obis

The ori-nasu kan  was an interesting experience. It is a lovely, traditional wooden building. There is a shop on the bottom floor. I was the only visitor; I was escorted upstairs, across to what I think was the building next door, and put into the hands of a young weaver. She explained to me (with my Japanese, and the help of Google translate), what she was doing, and demonstrated how she created the pattern. There were three large hand looms, and one other worker. There were also a series of looms which they use for workshops! One thing I found funny is that although it is entirely handweaving, they have replaced the old jacquard punch cards with.... 3/14 inch disks. (I would say floppy disks, but these are the stiffy disks). This is used just to ... lift and lower the warp threads to create the pattern. If my explanation is not clear... it is important to understand what a jacquard loom is!

I was not permitted to take photos in the workshop, but was permitted to take photos of the historic (silk, of course) kimonos and obis on display.

obis

kimonos

kimonos and obis

loom at Nishijin textile centre

From there I went to the Nishijin textile centre Nishijin textile centre, which gets mixed reviews! It is the official place to find out about the local textile trade. But mostly to buy local silk stuff! As others have said, the building feels dated, but I enjoyed the exhibit (no photos permitted) of historic kimonos, with explanations translated into English! There was one sample for a royal figure, where there were thirteen layers of clothing! Impressive! I get the sense that this location has not resumed its full scale operations post-Covid - looks like they used to do Kimono fashion shows, but these were not currently happening. 

In the shop section there was loom set up, and a woman was demonstrating for a small group of school-kids. I watched and listened. I did not take a photo of the demonstration, but here is the loom itself! Maybe I would like to learn weaving?!

Some of the places I went to on the trip were places I discovered 'by accident' when looking at Google maps. Such was the case with the  Kyoto Shibori museum. Shibori is the Japanese art of 'tie-dyeing', which is one of the things I am very interested in! (In fact, one of the activities at mhy workshop). This museum seems to be a private affair; they offer workshops, and, of course, things for sale. But it was worth the visit. A short video (in English, in my case), and some samples on display, as well as the tools of the trade, and some offshoots!

The video was very informative. and illustrated the hours of effort that could go into some of the shibori techniques. 

Check out these two fabulous pieces of art - done by tying off tiny segments of the cloth, and other techniques made clear by the tools below.

love the gold!

four seasons, maybe?

One fascinating techique was the use of this 'bucket'. You put the part you don't want to dye into the bucket then you seal it extremely well, and dump the buket into the dye! You would repeat this, I suppose, several times...

some shibori tools

more tools

When doing shibori one of the steps is to remove all of the little strings/threads, to reveal your design. Painstaking work which creates a lot of 'waste'. All those little (now coloured) threads. There was one display where an artist had used those threads to recreate famous paintings, as a sort of collage! (No photos allowed!).

just one part of the kaiseki

After Kyoto I spent a night at a ryokan in Hakone, which is a national park area near Mount Fuji. (Fuji-san). Getting to the little town (Gora). From the JR Shinkansen I had to get on a regional train, then I had two or three minutes to get from that train to an even more local train. The last train had to go forwards and backwards to get up the switchbacks (instead of turning). Very interesting procedure. When I arrived at the Gora station, no problem - a shuttle met me. A ryokan is a traditional style Japanese hotel, often located at an 'onsen' (hot spring). When you arrive your are invited to change into a yukata to wear in and around the property. They also usually serve tradtional multi-course meals (kaiseki). This was a very relaxing and lovely stop!

cog-wheel train at Gora

The next morning I wanted to go to the Hakone shrine. I was a bit unclear as to my plans for the day, but they fell into place very nicely! Instead of leaving my luggage at the hotel, and returning for it, for a reasonable fee I could have it transported to the regional train station that I had to go through, and vist the region 'hands-free'. So off I went, with a fairly vague idea of my plans. I was going to take the cog-train (yest, yet another, even smaller train!) down and go through the main town to get to the shrine, At the cog-train stop the only other passenger happened to be a young recent law grad from Québec, who was going UPHILL, to take the 'rope-way' across and down. Sounded good to me.  I did not have a great sense of the geography of the region nor where I was going, but I did know that I was in the land of heaven for public transportation. So yes, at the other side of the mountain (up an down we had to go), I had to get a bus to get to this tori which I had wanted to see. I am sure there was much more to see, but I was worried about getting around on the other side - as the weekend beginning Golden Week things promised to be busy on the highways and trains.

view from the ropeway gondola

Did I really wait half an hour for this?

I was able to find the tori in the water, and visit the shrine. As ever, quite monumental! I wandered around on the waterfront for a bit, ate some lunch, then found the bus. The bus stops are very organized. Sometimes so much so that even the locals get confused. I had found the correct line, and an older couple had been in the wrong line (different bus route, same destination but slower.)  They wanted to get across the barrier (how to describe it - like they have in banks, or airport lines to indicate where to stand. We could not 'open it', so I held it up, and the woman came through, a bit shakily. I offered my arm/hand which she took gratefully, and hung on to it until it was time to get on the bus, frequently thanking me and telling me her legs hert! A very sweet encounter!

Tree trunks or a giant elephant?

funny pedal boats

Next stop Tokyo. I won't go into too much detail, but I had been worried about a few things at this point, all related to getting to Tokyo with the impending Golden Week increase in movement. So I had reserved a seat with a reserved spot for a suitcase. This had determined my route, incidentally. I arrived VERY EARLY at the train station (worried again about missing the train), and hung around for a while, before thinking - I can see if there is room on one of these earlier trains for me AND my suitcase in the non-reserved section, and there was.

I also won't go into too much detail about the hotel I had booked. Had trouble finding it, and when I did, decided I could not stay there. Went out for dinner with a new friend, (from the upcoming workshop), booked another hotel, returned to the nasty hotel to grab my suitcase and go to the new place. Realized half-way there that I had left my sweatshirt. ... Thought okay - will go tomorrow. It is not the end of the world if I don't get it - I made it for free - with scraps from other projects. But it still kept me from sleeping, so at 11 p.m got out of bed, travelled half an hour through the Tokyo nightlife to retrieve it, and got back. Much relief. It was very useful during the workshop! And fun to travel the trains at night in Tokyo. 

I had a full day to fill in Tokyo, visited a few places, and, since the fabric area I wanted to visit was closed Sunday, I bought this antique yukata to fill my fabric shopping itch. I plan to make a barrista apron with it! (Or should I just leave it as it. Won't wear it...)

WORKSHOP

I will create a separate post about the workshop.

After the workshop, Ottawa daughter joined me in Tokyo, and we had a lovely time. We ate good food, we walked around. During our days together in Japan, we managed to make a number of great food choices! Some were really a leap of faith!

sunny day

We went to Nikko for two nights. Nikko is a UNESCO world heritage site - many old impressive shrines/temples, in the mountains, a waterfall to see.

some plain structures

Nikko is lovely, but did not seem to have any restaurants open for dinner. Maybe we did not walk far enough... but our lovely (international brand) hotel, (which had no restaurant so that you could enjoy the local cuisine... hmph!) was already a good hike from the main strip and we had walked far. There wasn't even much left at the convenience store, where, in Japan, you can usually count on finding a snack type meal!

and very elaborate!

view from our window

So I was worried about the next night - I had booked a rural ryokan for the two of us, and hoped that I could pay extra for the meal service. BUT, when a tourist information person phoned for us the next day, that would not be possible. So we ended up changing that booking to a different ryokan where we felt like royalty! Watakeshou, on the Kinugawa river.  GREAT IDEA!

The reception was lovely, the view was refreshing (even the little camping sites across the river!), and the food was delicious! We spoiled ourselves that night!

one part of the dinner

breakfast!

Kegon falls

Unfortunately for me, as we were packing to leave the Ryokan I got a back spasm, which affected my mobility (and Ottawa daughter's mood) for the rest of the trip!

We went back to shop for fabric in Nippori Fashion town (I did all my shopping at Tomato)

more cotton - how could we NOT?

cottons

The last night we moved to Narita, which is the town near the Narita airpot. Good move! It would have been nice to spend a few more hours there - it seemed like fun, in spite of the pouring rain! We rolled the dice (figuratively), and walked into this fun restaurant, had grilled yakitori, edamame, tamago, tofu, and, a bit of sake to mark the end of our stay!

Next post - Vietnam.